The present invention relates to the field of storage artifacts and, more particularly, to collections for storage artifacts of a tree structured repository established via artifact metadata.
Currently, no effective way exists for users to relate files in a tree structured data store to each other irrespective of the location, type of the artifact, or application. That is, often users want to relate a set of heterogeneous files to each other for a specific purpose. The users can want this set of files to be independent of any specific application (i.e., independent of an office suite, a document management solution, etc.). For example, a user may utilize a word processing program to write a document for a specific activity, may use a spreadsheet program for numerical analysis for the same activity, may use a presentation program for discussion on the activity, and may use an email program to solicit feedback from others. Each of these programs utilizes different types of files.
To resolve this challenge, a user may attempt to store all of these files within a single folder, which can be problematic when multiple users collaborate on the same activity. That is, it is easy for the various files to become out of date, for users to forget to update the folder, and for other manual organizational problems to arise. Some of these problems can be situationally resolved using a corporate document management system. Other times, however, a set of coordinating users will lack suitable permissions to access the same corporate management system, so file sharing and maintenance is still challenging. Document management systems and their constraints can even aggravate document maintenance problems on occasion, especially when multiple different entities are collaborating, which use different document management systems. Different entities can even use different and incompatible operating systems, computing platforms, and file management systems. Thus, database systems that centrally maintain necessary correspondences between files are prone to problems and shortcomings by their very nature, due to platform, operating system, and/or application incompatibilities.
Another problem with existing file management systems is that a single file can be related to more than one context, grouping, or activity. A strict hierarchy of nodes used by most tree structured repositories cannot accommodate these multiple different groupings. A work around that is often used to overcome this limitation is the use of shortcuts, which are files that reference other files. Placeholders can be placed in a hierarchy structure at a desired place, which is different from the location of the referenced file. This structure is prone to corruption and can be difficult to maintain. That is, it is common for shortcuts to have “broken links” to the files to which they point. Processing overhead to track all links to specific files, which can be moved and otherwise manipulated without the links automatically being updated in most cases, can be significant.